It is now the 4th day of Week #2 in The Genealogy Do-Over. I have not been sitting idle these past days. I completed my last task from Week #1 goals I set for myself. I created a Genealogy Do-Over Notebook. My Facebook posting for 12 Jan 2013 was:

“Finally finished my notebook for my Genealogy Do-Over. It is organized for Shortcuts on Word documents & Evernote; Checklist with the blank forms as a reminder of answering the “Who, What, Where in, Where is, When, Why and How questions;” Family interview Question worksheets, tradition recording forms, Artifacts & Heirloom form, photo inventory form, Ancestors Surname variation form, Blank census, military, deed forms and many other reminders of records I will check. I even have a timeline, source summary, research logs and of course a Table of Contents for each individual of what is in their file.

Tomorrow I will do my self-interview based of “The Book of Me 2014” prompts byAnglers Rest,Julie Goucher. I feel confident that the time I spent the past three days was worth it.”

Family Tree Interviews

Our tasks for Week # 2 include:

Setting Research goals

Conducting Self Interview

Conducting Family Interviews

My progress on these goals are as follows:

My Specific Family Research Goals will be made after I complete my self-interview and those of my family members. The goals will be based on information from each individual. The research goals I have set for myself at this time are:

To gather photos to complement my self-interview with a completed Family Group Sheet ,

to provide original documents complement each interview I do, whenever possible,

to cite properly those documents, artifacts, documents, as well as the interview itself,

to establish questions for family interviews and complete a family group sheet for each person

to the side which method of interviewing will make the interview we most comfortable,

to become familiar with the equipment involved in each interview, i.e. camera, recording device, Evernote audio note, Skype, or FaceTime,

to utilize the Excel research log provided in the files from the Genealogy Do-Over Facebook group

I will add research goals as needed, along with a to do lists to keep me focused on the task at hand

I will continue to pace myself, slowly, making sure that the Genealogy Proof Standards will be met, when I began documenting my family research goals: I will perform a reasonably exhaustive search; creating accurate and complete source citation; analyze all information collected; resolve any conflicts that might occur from the oral interview and documents found; and write a well written, supported conclusion for each person and task.

Above all else, it is important to remember we are the storytellers for the next generations, the quality of our work should provide a strong foundation for them to continue on telling our family heritage to their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren onward.

I mentioned above I was going to follow prompts from “The Book of Me” after reviewing the prompts I felt that I would take a different approach. I had already completed the 52 prompts with private written responses. This is a Do-Over after all, so why not also make a do over for my oral interview as well. I chose 50 questions that I will answer. I’m using myself as a guinea pig in preparation for my family interviews. I’m hoping that these questions would take about an hour two to answer. By becoming comfortable with the questions I will be asking my family, my goal is that it should make both of us more comfortable during the interview process.

My family interviews will not be done this week due to scheduling conflicts. I will most likely be doing phone interviews because of the New England winter weather. My family does not have Skype, Facetime, or Google +, and when asked if they would be interested in setting up these free accounts they were not open to the idea. I will most likely use Skype for the interview with my son and his family. I do not have any direct line relatives older than myself to interview. In the spring, when traveling to the North country of New Hampshire will make my journey less stressful, I will interview my mother’s half-brothers wife, in regards to my parents, grandparents and uncle. She is the eldest on my mother side. The eldest on my father’s side would be my cousin, who will be interviewed by telephone, hopefully followed by a trip to either her house, where she has many photos and artifacts from her mother, who was my father’s sister.